Playing The Borg No. 14:
Unconventional Strategies

BORG/ROGUE BORG ALLIANCE

I mentioned this briefly in the last article. Essentially, the idea is to use a large amount of Rogue Borg Mercenaries as your offense, slowing your opponent as you move through your objectives. Undetected Beam-Ins helps with this deck -- download the Rogues, not your own personnel. Crosis is great, and if your opponent is playing Lore, that's icing on the cake.

ADVANTAGES: You will really be able to stall your opponent with this. You can also combine with Lore Returns to take control of ships which you can use to attack without (or in spite of) a current objective.

DISADVANTAGES: Your probe ratio drops dramatically. You may find yourself probing for turns on end with Rogue Borg interrupts. Finding the balance between too many and not enough Rogue Borg is difficult, and requires some playtesting.

QUEEN-LESS BORG DECKS

While I've talked of the value of playing the Borg Queen a great deal, it is also more than possible to play without one. This will require more Awakens and Activate Subcommands to compensate for her missing downloading ability, and may take more Adapt: Negate Obstructions to deal with dilemmas (things like Maglock, Shaka When the Walls Fell, and others).

ADVANTAGES: The big advantage, you have nothing to fear from Alas, Poor Queen. Many players see red when they see you play a Borg Queen. They come after you relentlessly, bent on destroying your entire Collective by killing your Queen. Also, if you don't play with Queens, you don't play as though you are *dependent* on Queens. The drones are perfectly capable of scouting, adapting, and moving quickly without the Queen, but often players who use the Borg Queen will feel as though they have to get her into play before they can begin scouting and scoring. They'll wait around several turns until they do before proceeding. Delays like that can finish off a Borg deck.

DISADVANTAGES: There's no question, the Borg Queen is useful, and puts speed in your deck. You can also play smaller decks if you're sure to get a Queen out early.

BORG "SWARM" DECKS

Great Borg decks don't necessarily have to be based around staffing Cubes. Some decks don't even use them. The Scout Vessels, which have the ability to report with crew right to the Alpha Quadrant, are much faster to get out -- and in great numbers -- than the larger ships in the Borg fleet. You don't even need to use an outpost in such a strategy if you don't want to.

ADVANTAGES: This is very quick indeed. By deliberately seeding dilemmas your Borg can pass at a nearby mission of your opponent's, you can score points on the second turn of the game with a good draw. On turn one, report with crew and complete the scouting off a seeded objective. On turn two, a successful probe will score you points -- even earlier in the game than the average Assign Mission Specialists deck will manage to get on the board. Also, dilemmas like Cytherians will not set you far back. There are waves of expendable ships at your disposal.

DISADVANTAGES: With SHIELDS and WEAPONS of only 4, the Borg Scout Vessels ought to come with bullseyes painted on the hull. Any opponent with the means is liable to come after you looking to pick up 5-point bonuses. You'll need to plan ahead ways to discourage this. Intermix Ratio will help. You can also use one Cube, which you staff in the Delta Quadrant as you swarm the Alpha Quadrant -- if the big guns are called for later, then you can move in. Or you can simply alternate ends of the spaceline as you report and scout, to keep your opponent tied up. If all they're doing is chasing your ships and not attempting missions, they won't beat you.

There you have it, almost everything you wanted to know about the Borg but were afraid to ask. Almost. There seems to be one other bit of Borg strategy people want to know about, and they haven't been at all shy about asking me over the last month:

"Mot, could you show us one of your decks?"

NEXT TIME: Mot's Tournament Winning Borg Deck

- Mot the Barber